To those that have painted the rocker panel plastic...

... I ask you, how is the paint over the plastic holding up? Both of my bumpers have seen better days and I've been thinking about having the plastic painted. I talked with a local guy who has done auto repair work for years and he felt that painting over the textured plastic could look good for a while but he feels the paint would bubble up in some way or another after a short amount of time.

While I'm on the topic, my dad's 95 Riv's rocker plastic (smooth) is entirely different from my 98's (much more textured). Wondering if that would make a difference in applicability and / or durability.

My 95 was a little more textured. My dad sanded it smooth and painted it. That was 11,000 miles ago and it still looks like the day he painted it.

If a plastic piece is given a couple coats of adhesion promoter it should last as long as any painted surface.The  bumpers & rockers get alot of abuse so a repaint is allways more likely than the body.

Thanks guys, that's pretty much what I assumed... wonder why my painter would have said that... probably just doesn't want to do the work

ZEP wrote:

Thanks guys, that's pretty much what I assumed... wonder why my painter would have said that... probably just doesn't want to do the work

Interesting that you should say that. It could be that he dont know? could be that he dont care? could be that he dont know what adhesion promoter is?could be hes tryin to make a quick buck?
My advice to you is to do them yourself.Why? because theyre so easy to do.the hardest part is getting the rockers off.not that it's difficult but you might break a few clips. otherwise,get 2 cans of adhesion promoter from your local auto paint shop.2 cans of primer and 2 cans of color,take them your gas cap as a sample or whatever other color you choose.and 2 cans of clear.  You can get them done in a leisurely weekend and reinstalled by Monday.  A good paint shop has the capability to mix your color and place it in a rattle can.if youre going with anyother color commonly available it would make it that much easier.
what color are you going with?

What about plastidip? It would probably last longer than paint, easier to fix if you don't like it, and probably cheaper. I plan on doing my roof (probably the whole car eventually) in black with a glossifier within the coming weeks.

Matt, your suggestion made me actually just spend about an hour looking @ everything you can do with plasti dip... I feel like a pro now lol. I remember one of my friends dipped his Honda Prelude's wheels and they looked sexy as hell, so I'm actually really thinking about doing dip around the panels and maybe the roof too now. I might actually do that in the next couple weeks... I'll let you know how it goes!

And thanks Robo. The thing is that I wanted to get the entire rear bumper done, not just the panels, since the bumper has a bunch of gouges in it. I might just get the bumper done separately and plasti dip the rockers now... but the same color throughout would look more refined imo... mmm, I'm going to do what I always do with major decisions and sleep on it (usually doesn't help)

Well, I just made plans to dip the whole car. Going to save up and get a whole bunch of cans and do it all in matte black. If there's enough left I'll do the interior as well. If I ever want to go gloss I'll just get the glossifier, and if I ever want to go back I'll just start peeling.

I've also been contemplating about painting the rocker panels on my 98 Riv.   I don't know the paint # because there's a different cover on the spare tire.   I believe it's called Bordeaux Red.   I don't know whether or not to paint it body color or black ???    Could i please get some opinions ?
Thank you very much
Reattaron

matt270avian wrote:

Well, I just made plans to dip the whole car. Going to save up and get a whole bunch of cans and do it all in matte black. If there's enough left I'll do the interior as well. If I ever want to go gloss I'll just get the glossifier, and if I ever want to go back I'll just start peeling.

I wouldnt do it with cans.. you need to get it in gallons and then thin it a bit and spray it with an electric or pneumatic sprayer. You will get a much better coat/results.

Yeah, but it's also a lot more expensive. Plastidip is easier to get an even coating with than spray paint, just as long as you don't do anything stupid with it.

^Matt, ive rattle can'd a car before, and i can assure you that you will need a LOT of cans to make it look decent. Honestly, it might be cheaper to go for the gallons, especially if you can find a friend with a compressor and spray gun. You can get three gallons of the stuff for like 150 bucks. Just my 2 cents!

Get the gallons of dip as cheap as you can find then go to harbor freight for the compressor and air gun. You're going to need the thinner too, if you wana do it right.

Dont forget pre-dip too!

The problem is no one I know has a spray gun, and I priced everything out. It would be give or take 100 bucks for cans, but if I get the gallons and rent a spray gun it would be about 200+. This isn't meant to last much more than a year anyways since I plan on getting the whole thing painted. I do like to get things done correctly, but I would rather do it with the cans so that I can re spray a panel if I need to and since it's cheaper.

You can buy an cheap HVLP spray gun from harbor freight. Not the best gun in the industry but it'll still get the job done. I have one and have done a few paint jobs with it, it works. If you are really picky, then it still makes a good primer gun.